4 days ago
16
From the same people who got permission to make a modding SDK in 2023
A team of modders are creating a Community Edition of Arkane's footloose fantasy RPG Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, with Valve's support and publisher Ubisoft's approval. The modders in question are the same outfit who received a "completely blank check" from Ubi to develop a modding SDK, back in 2023. Now, they're devising a new version using the latest Source Engine SDK. Kickbait, indeed.
“As you know, I took a trip over to Ubisoft Montreal for help with our Advanced SDK and even got [console port Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements] to work on PC," writes team member David Wiltos on Moddb. "Since then there has been a lot of talk to figure out what the best way to bring our fixes into Dark Messiah was.
"I am proud and excited to say that with approval from Ubisoft and support from Valve, boasting the latest Source 1 SDK, the team and I are working on a community edition of Dark Messiah!" he continues. "There are features and directions I can't quite share yet, but at the very basic we'll have a lot more stability on this new SDK and most importantly direct code access for expanding and fixing issues. Best of all it's in the hands of the community, meaning we'll all be working together on making this amazing game even greater."
The Community Edition team are now accepting sign-ups from potential collaborators, as they try to get the beast underway alongside their existing Dark Messiah mod projects, which include an RTX mod, co-op functionality, and a dungeon generator.
"We're not really remaking the game, just porting it over thanks to our deep knowledge from the Advanced SDK and Ubisoft's dev trip, but that's still a job in and of itself," Wiltos explains. "We don't want to leave the mods we made completely unsupported, but we will need to allocate our time to make sure that the community edition comes out sooner than later. As you can imagine there's a time sensitivity to all this so I wanted to formally apologize in advance if mod updates become even slower.
"That being said it doesn't mean that the mods we make are completely abandoned," he goes on. "Our objective is to make sure our mods have a home In the community edition. It'll be even more capable as we won't have to do buggy detours!"
If you've not played Dark Messiah, please come hold my hand, because I haven't either, and I'm worried that some disgusted former RPS editor is about to boot me into a chasm of rusty scalpels. "Ragdoll Murder Physics: The Game - Secrets of Trapland," was how Alice O (RPS in peace) summarised Dark Messiah in 2014. "A health and safety inspector's nightmare, its levels are draped in spiked trellis, filled with traps on hair triggers, constructed with wood so poor it'll explode if anyone even touches it, and almost entirely lacking in railings around the many perilous edges," she wrote.
In 2017, Sam Horti contributed a whole article about the game's kick mechanics, observing that "combat turns into an an absurd puzzle that's less about parrying blows and landing counters and more about lining enemies up with ledges."
Sure sounds like a fun videogame. Why have I not played it yet? IDK, mate, why haven't you played *consults archives* Missions of the Reliant? Or one of the many other dusty cult classics I could defensively namecheck as I back furiously away from any and all pointy objects and precipices?
Ubisoft's recent administration of the Might and Magic series is a rare ray of watery sunshine from a company who've spent the past few months cutting projects and gutting studios. In July last year, Ubi handed publishing duties for Heroes Of Might And Magic: Olden Era to Hooded Horse - as safe a pair of hands as you'll find in the strategy RPG genre. I doubt anybody at Ubisoft is making, or knows how to make a Dark Messiah follow-up - OG devs Arkane now languish in the bloody paws of Microsoft - so it's nice that they're letting the modders have their fun.
English (US) ·